Remarks to the press by Ambassador V.Churkin after the Security Council meeting on establishing of the Joint Investigative Mechanism OPSW-UN

V.Churkin: I don’t want to make big statements but I think it is
an important step, an important indication of our ability to work together and
to resolve difficult issues. You could hear that a number of delegations were
voicing that in the course of the discussion. I hope it will translate into our
continued joint work on the political front. I mentioned before that we are
working very well on PRST (President of the Security Council’s statement) in
support of Staffan de Mistura’s efforts I hope it will be adopted early next
week. Let’s hope we will maintain the momentum.

Q:
Do you want
accountability with Syria? What’s the mechanism?

V.Churkin: This is what the resolution is about. You should read
it. Now it is the final text.

Q: Do you think this is a beginning of more agreement
between the US and Russia on Syria and other issues?

V.Churkin: We have been in a close contact about it. Minister S.Lavrov
and Secretary J.Kerry have been talking a lot about it. I think one can say
that there is a greater commonality of the understanding of the complexity of
the situation there. Some of the shortcuts, which were voiced by our Western
colleagues when the conflict was breaking out, they did not really work and
actually they exacerbated the situation. But we still do not have complete
understanding of what needs to be done. One element that is particularly clear
is that our Western colleagues do not yet accept the need to focus first of all
and primarily on the terrorist threat in Syria and Iraq and our joint struggle
against ISIL. As you know we have proposed the concept of anti‑terrorist front
in Syria and Iraq but at this point we do not have the required unity of effort
by the international community, mostly because the US and other Western
countries, our Western colleagues in the Security Council do not want to involve
the Syrian government in that joint struggle, which in our view is wrong. It
undermines the effectiveness of the effort. Speaking about the chemical weapons
which we were addressing today, of
course, it is in contrast to what happened during the operation for the
destruction of the Syrian chemical arsenal where everybody was cooperating with
the Syrian government. If we could do it then, why can’t we do it now under
this very serious challenge posed to the international community by ISIL and
other terrorist groups fighting in Syria but we continue our discussions. I
think it would be an important step if we do have that PRST in support of
Staffan de Mistura, which in my recollection will be the first consensus
document of the Security Council on the political aspects of the settlement of
the Syrian crisis. We continue working.